Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-09-22
FOREST PRESERVATION.
A Topic That vitality Touches the Pros
perity of the American People.

| A Topic That vitality Touches the Pros
| perity of the American People.
No nation under the sun was in times
of Deace ever so waSteful as our own.
The increasing ease of securing sup
ply of food has tended for some hun
dreds of years. if not thousands, to
render human beings less economical
of means and careful of methods The
older races, like the Chinese. never
waste; to them every thing has its use.
But we have destroyed as much as we
have produced. Forests, that nature
raised by the labor of thousand
years, we have burnt up in day. Civ
| ilization has invented the phrase clear
| ING up, which means wanton removal
of all things that stand in the way of
! our immediate needs. Where vast
stretches of oaks covered millions of
acres it is difficult to find single grove
or single tree; but how inestimable
such remains are when fOundl 1t is
not wholly from the utilitarian stand
point that we look. but the aesthetic.
These are like their surroundings. If
it be undesirable to dwell in the forest,
it is still more undesirable to
dwell without the cOmpanionship
economy and physical necessity
we are compelled to have sympathy for
and with the vegetable world. Our des-
tiny, in common with the whole animal
kingdom, is identified with the plant
kingdom. In the struggle for exist
ence, from the outset, there has been
mutual interdependence of all living
things. If we destroy the trees we in
jure our own progress and prospects.
In the present economy of nature, pro-
toplasm, or the basis of life, can only
be created by the plant kingdom; from
it we receive the same at second hand.
But our existence is dependent on trees
and plants in many other ways, and al
ways has been. The earliest human
races were littoral, or shOre-dwellers.
They had no tools to work their way
through forests, nor weapons to cope
with the denizens of the forest. But
with increase of the art of making tools
human beings left the shore and roamed
the forests as hunters. To the hunting
races the destruction of trees was the
destruction of their means of existence.
The North American Indian saw only
starvation in the white mans unspar-
ing axe.
Civilization has Brought us into even
closer relation to trees, and more init
mate dependence on vegetation. The
equilibrium of the air, adjusting the
proportions of carbon gases for our
healthy existence, depends on trees.
Malaria is not caused, but prevented,
by judicious proportion of forest
land. Prof. Shaler takes up the case
with great energy to show that the
most serious result following the de-
struction of our forests will be the
consequent loss of soil, turning vast
areas into deserts. ALREADY Il large
part of many fertile regions has been
sterilized in this fashion; and each
year larger portion of our infinitely
precious heritage of soil slips into
rivers and finds its way to the sea, be-
cause we have deprived it of the pro-
tecting coating of vegetation" We
have also to consider the immense
vegetable deposit which is yearly add
ed to the soil where forests abound.
Our own culture takes from the soil,
on the contrary, more than it gives.
So the waste from rain is greater in
| titled soils than in wooded lands. In
forests the soil is ever deepening; in
open lands ever decreasing. This evil
we must endure. but should be careful
not to aggravate. The amount of
soil now swept away annually
is actually clogging the large rivers,
compelling them constantly to change
channels. The argument of Prof.
Shaler is pressed to show that no man
has such right in soil that he may be
wasteful of it, or use it for the disad-
vantage of his neighbors. Govern
ment, he holds. should interfere to pre-
vent waste of forests.
This question of forest preservation
has been more or less considered by
several of the States, but in fact, apart
from the encouragement of tree plant
ing, little has been done in a system
attic manner to regulate the use or pre-
vent the waste of trees Our relation
to the vegetable kingdom grows even
more intricate, and our serious depend
ence more emphasized constantly, since
the demands OF civilization for timber
and fuel increase, and must increase.
At present the greatest loss in the
way of forest destruction is from fires
caused by locomotives, malice or care
lessneSS. Some Of the railroads nave
already taken action to prevent the re-
currence of the evil from locomotive
sparks. The plan adopted is to clear
away all timber growth for one hun
dTed feet on each side of the track. a
furrow is then run along the outer edge
of this space and the whole kept moved
and clean. The loss from timber fire:
Is not less than an average of two mil
lion dollars per State annually. Thl